Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
It's Not Your Imagination: Republicans Really Don't Like Science
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2012/03/its-not-your-imagination-republicans-really-dont-science?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Motherjones%2Fmojoblog+%28MotherJones.com+%7C+MoJoBlog%29By Kate Sheppard
The premise of the 2005 book The Republican War on Science (by Mother Jones contributor Chris Mooney) was that conservatives in the US hate science. They don't like evolution, they don't like global warmingnone of that stuff. Now a sociologist set out to figure out if that thesis really is trueand concluded that right in the US is indeed growing increasingly distrustful of science.
Gordon Gauchat of the University of North Carolina published these findings in the forthcoming issue of the American Sociological Review. He looked back at date from 1974 through 2010, and found that trust in science as relatively stable over the the 36-year period, except among self-identified conservatives. They actually started 1974 as the group that most-trusted science (compared to self-identified liberals and moderates), but have now dropped to the bottom of the ranking.
Gauchat used data from the General Social Survey, which asked subjects to rate their level of confidence in the scientific community. Here's what he found:
The reason for this, according to Mooney and others, is that the "political neutrality of science began to unravel in the 1970s with the emergence of the new right"a growing body of conservatives who were distrustful of science and the intellectual establishment, who were often religious and concerned about defending "traditional values" in the face of a modernizing world, and who favored limited government. This has prompted backlash against subjects for which there is broad scientific consensus, like global warming and evolutionbacklash that has been apparent in survey data over the past three decades.
. . . more
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
4 replies, 1660 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (7)
ReplyReply to this post
4 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
It's Not Your Imagination: Republicans Really Don't Like Science (Original Post)
swag
Mar 2012
OP
Biblical literalists are flat-earthers. If it contradicts the bible, IT'S A LIE!!!1!!!
kestrel91316
Mar 2012
#3
HockeyMom
(14,337 posts)1. Science contradicts the Bible,
and their "base".
longship
(40,416 posts)2. But why are the moderates so low?
That is very puzzling. Who are they listening to? And what are they being told that there is such a gap?
Just wondering.
Show me a postmodernist flying in an airliner and I'll show you a hypocrite.
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)3. Biblical literalists are flat-earthers. If it contradicts the bible, IT'S A LIE!!!1!!!
50000feet
(115 posts)4. Authoritarians like scientism.
Many conservatives pay at least lip service to the belief that Newtonian Physics explains pretty much everything. Einstein's Relativity and Quantum Physics are totally incomprehensible to the authoritarian mind-set since it prefers to perceive the universe as a predictably working machine.
Regressive to the 'nth degree given how far science has come since Newton.